The area known as Val Senales in South Tyrol is considered one of the best places in Italy for skiing.

From the mountain village of Maso Corto in Italy’s northernmost province, you can take the Val Senales Glacier cable car to Europe’s highest hotel, the Glacier Hotel Grawand, which sits in spectacular isolation 3200m above sea level on the Van Glacier Senales.

From the comfort of one of the hotel rooms or the restaurant enjoy incredible views of the Otztal Alps, one of a line of peaks that forms part of the border between Italy and Austria.

The ski slopes are open from September to May in this picturesque corner or Italy, and during the summer months hikers set off on some of the 1,600 km of hiking trails and treks to over 250 peaks in the region.

In 1991, German hikers Erika and Helmut Simon were doing just that, hiking the Tisenjoch Pass at an altitude of 3210 m above the Otztal Valley, when they noticed the upper part of a human body sticking out of the ice.

The couple alerted Austrian authorities, who assumed the body was the victim of a climbing accident. The next day they tried to extract the body from the ice, using axes and jackhammers.

Due to bad weather, the body was not released from the ice for five days. He was then taken by helicopter to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University in Austria.

There, Konrad Spindler, an archaeologist at the University of Innsbruck, examined the remains and announced that the man’s body was at least 4,000 years old.

Later radiocarbon analysis of the body’s tissues found it to be even older than that – around 5,300 years old. The glacial ice had preserved her through a process of natural mummification.

The mummy was named Otzi because of where the Simons found it in the Otztal Alps.

Its discovery was to be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Otzi’s artifacts were scattered around the body and included a 14-arrow bow and quiver, a leather pouch, a copper-bladed axe, a flint dagger, and fur and leather clothing, providing a unique glimpse into life during the era copper (3500 BC) to 1700 BC).

The incredibly well-preserved mummy was originally housed at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Innsbruck.

But when it was learned that Otzi had been found on the Italian side of the Alps, just 93 meters from the Austrian border, the Italian government claimed the remains.

Six years later, Otzi was transferred to the Archaeological Museum of South Tyrol in Bolzano, a small town known as the “Gateway to the Dolomites”.

The Dolomites are a range of mountains – 18 with peaks rising to over 3000m – of such exceptional natural beauty that they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.

Although Bolzano is believed to have been founded around 15 BC. as a Roman military station, the city became an important trade center between southern and northern Europe in the Middle Ages due to its proximity to major trade routes, including the Brenner Pass, the lowest crossing point in Europe. the alps.

The first documented market in Bolzano was the Piazza San Genesius, held in August 1208, and today the city is a celebration of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.

There is a large cathedral dating from the 12th century; the small church of St. John in the town, consecrated in 1180; Laubengasse with its 13th-century tall buildings in the city’s old town and a 13th-century Franciscan monastery.

Runkelstein Castle, dating from 1237 and standing on a rocky outcrop on the outskirts of town, was decorated with fine frescoes from 1385, which you can see today.

Piazza Walther is a wide space of cafes and shops overlooked by a monument dedicated to a medieval poet, where we sip cappuccinos before heading to the South Tyrolean Archeological Museum.

Here, an entire floor of the museum is dedicated to Otzi the Iceman and his artifacts.

The mummy is on precision scales in a special cold cell, which is kept at a constant temperature of -6C.

For 30 years, the ancient, withered corpse, which we see through a small window, has been extensively examined, measured, X-rayed and studied by archaeologists from all over the world.

We learn that due to the location in the glacial freeze that meant Otzi’s body remained so well preserved over the millennia, his tissues, bones and organs are also well preserved.

Otzi is believed to have been around 45 years old when he died, was 1.6m tall, had dark, medium length hair and had broken several bones during his life, including his nose.

He had 61 tattoos in the form of lines and crosses. As they are all located in places on his body with considerable wear, it is believed that they may have served therapeutic purposes.

At first it was thought that Otzi had died in an accident on the mountain. But in 2001, an X-ray revealed a flint arrowhead in his left shoulder, after which an entry wound was discovered in his back.

The arrow severed an artery, indicating he bled to death within minutes. Otzi is now believed to have been killed.

Just as fascinating as learning about Otzi and life in the Copper Age is seeing his restored clothing and other possessions.

I study a bearskin cap and goatskin leggings reinforced with strips of leather knotted on an additional strip of leather – like stockings on a garter.

A copper ax is preserved intact, as is a small flint dagger, and you can see the 5,000-year-old stitching on the deerskin quiver that held his arrows.

On display at the museum is a silicone, synthetic resin and real hair model of Otzi, which was created by Dutch artists Andrie and Alfons Kennis in 2011, based on research done at the time.

The life-size model of a short, middle-aged, tattooed man is remarkably realistic.

Recent studies of Otzi’s genome, using the latest sequencing methods, show that he may have darker skin than previously thought and a genetic predisposition to baldness. However, the museum currently has no plans to revisit the Kennis reconstruction.

All this knowledge of the past is a bit much to accumulate in one afternoon, so we retreat to the elegant bar of the Parkhotel Laurin, one of Bolzano’s fine hotels, for a well-deserved glass of Santa Maddalena, a fine red grape wine. grown in the vineyards around Bolzano.